Photographer’s Note
An old image of summer '95, during the travel from Panama to Guatemala City by public bus.
The picture was took at the city-market of Chichicastenango, the colorful and crowded handcrafts, masks and dresses market, maybe one of the most beautiful of whole Central America.
*Scanned image*
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A yawn (synonyms chasma, oscitation from the Latin verb oscitare, to open the mouth wide) is a reflex of deep inhalation and exhalation associated with being tired, with a need to sleep, or from lack of stimulation. Pandiculation is the term for the act of stretching and yawning. Yawning is a powerful non-verbal message with several possible meanings, depending on the circumstances. It is also claimed to help increase the state of alertness of a person. The exact causes of yawning are still unknown.
The word "yawn" has evolved from the Middle English word yanen, an alteration of yonen or yenen, which in turn comes from the Old English geonian.
Causes of yawning:
An indication of tiredness, stress, over-work, or boredom.
An action indicating psychological decompression after a state of high alert.
A means of expressing powerful emotions like anger, rejection, apathy or tedium.
Caused by low oxygen in the brain
The yawn reflex is often described as contagious: if one person yawns, this will cause another person to "sympathetically" yawn. The proximate cause for contagious yawning may lie with mirror neurons, i.e. neurons in the frontal cortex of certain vertebrates, which upon being exposed to a stimulus from conspecific (same species) and occasionally interspecific organisms, activates the same regions in the brain. Mirror neurons have been proposed as a driving force for Imitation which lies at the root of much human learning, e.g. language acquisition. Yawning may be an offshoot of the same imitative impulse. At a distal level (in terms of evolutionary advantage), yawning might be a herd instinct. Other theories suggest that the yawn serves to synchronize mood behavior among gregarious animals, similar to the howling of the wolf pack during a full moon. It signals tiredness to other members of the group in order to synchronize sleeping patterns and periods of activity. It can serve as a warning in displaying large, canine teeth. This phenomenon has been observed among various primates. The threat gesture is a way of maintaining order in the primates' social structure. The contagion of yawning is interspecific, for example a human yawning in front of a pet dog can incite the dog to yawn as well. Oddly, sometimes sympathetic yawning may be caused by simply looking at a picture of a person or animal yawning, or even seeing the word yawn.
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The Ocellated Turkey (Meleagris ocellata) is a large bird around 70-90 cm long and 3 kg (female) to 4 kg (male) weight. In the past, it has sometimes been treated in a genus of its own, as Agriocharis ocellata, but the differences between this species and Meleagris gallopavo are too small to justify generic segregation
The Ocellated Turkey exists only in a 50,000 square mile area comprised of the Yucatán Peninsula range includes the states of Quintana Roo, Campeche and Yucatan, as well as parts of southern Tabasco and northeastern Chiapas. They also can be found in the northern part of Guatemala.
From Wikipedia
ChrisJ, feather, jrj, carper, Gerrit, Silvio1953, AiresSantos, jaja1970, aloyho, paura, john_c, Rosa_d_MonteLua, sabyasachi1212 has marked this note useful
Critiques | Translate
bantonbuju
(48796) 2006-12-05 4:18
hahaha, this is cool paolo,
so you did not entartain these women too well, my friend :-))
funny, interesting insight into the life guatemala people (by the way - any country in the world that you have not been to, so far?)
tc, j.
ChrisJ
(70443) 2006-12-05 4:20
Bonjourno Paolo
A colourful daily life scene with excelelnt sharpness. Certainly NOT a turkey of a shot, lol! Ciao!
feather
(50144) 2006-12-05 4:41
I bet you yawned shortly afterwards! :)
Very colourful market shot. It's interesting to see the clothes stall with people selling turkeys. That's what I call diversification. Great shot.
Kath
rosaline
(0) 2006-12-05 5:15
Hi Paolo
Visited this country in 2004, and had a fantastic time. Your picture is characteristic of the colourful culture, clothing and market stalls that are common throughout Central and South America. Good documentary piece.
Aubrey
jrj
(34779) 2006-12-05 5:24
Well done daily life shot of this market place Paolo. Impressive result as a scanned job. Good details included.
carper
(65646) 2006-12-05 5:56
very good photo Paolo,
good quality, fine details, very good colours and all in a very nice frame, very good job here.
gr. jaap
jhm
(83328) 2006-12-05 7:42
Hi Paolo,
My compliments for this picture certainly for a scanning image! Colourful and very well composition, interesting insight into the life guatemala people, maybe are the two ladies sing through the movement of her mouth, very well done! Thanks for sharing.
Have a nice day,
John.
designsoul
(21394) 2006-12-05 12:11
Haha, it is funny, Paolo, am starting to yawn myself, it is contageous, but not because it is a boring shot but for its funny content. Well observed, and nicely presented life of these Guatemalan women. I would have tried to darken the foreground turkey a bit, they aren't fully cooked yet ;-)
ciao!
sasa
Silvio1953
(42821) 2006-12-05 12:26
Ciao Paolo, bellissima composizione, molto gradevoli le espressioni delle tre ragazze, foto ricca di colore e di colori, Bravo, ciao Silvio
delkoo
(34788) 2006-12-05 12:38
hi paolo
funny and colourful your instantaneous shot caught the woman at the right time.
impressive quality for a scanned photo.
ciao
didier
stefanocer
(10412) 2006-12-05 16:33
Bella scena di vita quotidiana , bei colori nitidezza e inquadratura impeccabile , bravo , ben fatto.
Stefano.
AiresSantos
(42902) 2006-12-06 5:07
Hi Paolo
Very nice this colourful daily life shot. Captured in the right moment, i like the expresion of the women. Very interesting details.
TFS and have a nice day,
Aires
rbcy1974
(20746) 2006-12-06 7:06
Hello Paolo
Nice parallel between the three girls and the three turkeys,
excellent environment. I think you should cop it bit from the right side in order to concentrate more on the girls.
Regards
Daniel
Gerrit
(36269) 2006-12-06 8:49
Hi Paolo,
Maybe not what happened but 'singing with the turkeys' would even be a better title.
Great stuff.
Regards, Gerrit
fayeulle
(26547) 2006-12-06 9:19
Hi paolo
Colorfull daylylife. I am amazed with the girl on the left side. She is so tired !!!
Cheers
JP
Is Gatemala a nice country to visit ? Should be in my list...
jaja1970
(1286) 2006-12-06 10:31
Hi Paolo,
Wonderful job. So fantastic and colourful.
Well done,
Javad.
aloyho
(6109) 2006-12-07 2:34
Hi Paolo,
I was attracted to how the turkeys seemed to blend with the baskets. Lovely colours that you can still managed to get with the scan. I enjoyed the array of striking colours and the mood that you managed to capture. Well done!! Thanks and do have a great day.
paura
(39258) 2006-12-07 14:19
Paolo,
Very nice shot here. Superb colors on this nice POV. Nice to know about this culture.
REgards
Paulo
Rosa_d_MonteLua
(1504) 2006-12-10 12:00
Ciao Paolo!
Really nice view of this daily life moment, which you offer us here with perfect colors (right saturation and contrast levels), nice framing and fine light.
Grazie e complimenti per la foto,
Rosa
brevbrev14
(372) 2006-12-10 15:58
Ciao PAOlo, bella e divertente questa immagine!
bella inquadratura, hai catturato un bel riquadro di vita guatemalteca!
per essere una immagine scansionata è di ottima qualità e colori!
ciao!
Valeria
torno
sabyasachi1212
(19546) 2006-12-11 1:03
Hi Paolo,
Your photo is interesting and your note even more fascinating:) I didn't know there was so much behind a Yawn. They do seem bored, perhaps your lack of interest in buyting a turkey was the reason.
With Greetings from India
Sabyasachi
scalerman
(25787) 2006-12-17 15:27
Paolo: this picture has technical flaws, but your sponteneity of capture here makes up for it. Nice textiles too. Fine shot overall. regards, c
Photo Information
-
Copyright: Paolo Motta (Paolo)
(40755) - Genre: Places
- Medium: Color
- Date Taken: 1995-09-00
- Categories: Daily Life
- Camera: Nikon N80
- Photo Version: Original Version
- Theme(s): Guatemala colors, 1995 From Panama to Mexico by bus [view contributor(s)]
- Date Submitted: 2006-12-05 4:11
- Favorites: 1 [view]








